1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to surgical instruments for the dissection of bone or other tissue. More particularly, the present invention relates to a swivel apparatus for attaching a surgical instrument motor to a fluid conduit, the apparatus providing the ability to swivel the motor into various angular displacements from the fluid conduit.
2. Background Information
Surgical instruments employing fluid-powered motors to rotate cutting or dissection tools are conventional and well-known in the art. Such surgical tools are used in such delicate surgical operations as brain surgery and microsurgery. These surgical instruments must be capable of sanitary operation without contaminating an operating-room environment. Also, because of the delicate nature of surgery, the surgical instrument must be manipulated easily by the surgeon without causing undue fatigue, which could lead to disastrous surgical errors.
A number of surgical tools have hand pieces or cutting ends that are angularly displaced with respect to the fluid conduit, which supplies the fluid pressure necessary to power the motor, which in turn rotates a cutting or dissecting tool. The angularly displaced hand piece and dissecting tool provides an advantageous arrangement for manipulation of the surgical tool by the surgeon or user. Such angled tools are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,677,337, Jul. 17, 1928 to Grove; U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,154, Nov. 12, 1974 to Nordin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,185, Oct. 25, 1977 to Waldron; U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,029, Jan. 31, 1978; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,615, May 9, 1989 to Graham.
A drawback of these angled surgical tools is that they are permanently angularly displaced from the fluid conduit. This is a drawback for the user because at some stages of the surgery, the user may desire a "straight" surgical tool, and at other times the user may desire an angled surgical tool. With the prior-art surgical tools, a surgeon either must have one of each type available, or must interchange straight and angled hand pieces with a single fluid conduit. Having each type of surgical tool available can be quite cumbersome because each surgical tool requires its own fluid conduit, which can be quite inconvenient during the pressure and stress of surgery. Switching between each type of surgical tool, on a single fluid conduit, can be time-consuming when time frequently is of the essence.
A need exists to provide a surgical instrument, including a fluid-powered motor for rotating a dissecting tool, that is manipulated easily from an aligned position in which the motor axis and the fluid conduit axis are aligned, to an angularly displaced position in which the motor axis intersects the fluid conduit axis at a selected angle.